The Aegis's Keyblade
by Kitsune-Dama
Summary: The fight against Xemnas was tough, but in the end, Sora and Riku did it. Sadly, though, fate wasn't quite as done with Sora as they might have been lead to believe, and before they could enter the Realm of Darkness, Sora was transported to Alrest. Right smack dab inside the chamber the Aegis, Pyra, was held in. And did I mention Torna was on their mission to capture her, too?
1. Chapter 1

**Finally, I have created a crossover with two of my favorite video games of all time: Kingdom Hearts 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2(On a side note, I finally beat Xenoblade this month, and I 100% the first Kingdom Hearts game and got the Platinum trophy on PS4-** ** _score_** **.).**

 **I absolutely LOVE both these franchises, and the idea for this story came to me when I was re-playing KH2(For around the twentieth time... This year.), and my power went out, so I went to my Switch to play** ** _that_** **, and then I saw Xenoblade and I wanted to slap myself for not thinking of this sooner.**

 **The last part of this was easily my favorite part to write, though, because I just love the KH abilities, and creating new ones for Sora to use made me feel like a fat kid in a candy store that was told he was the new owner of the joint. I also tried looking up Sora's height to see how tall he was so I could put that in there as well, but, uh, all I could find was a Reddit that translated a picture that had Sora's birthday and THEN his height... Which said he was 5'2 at nearly sixteen, SO fuck that, lets just say he's Rex's height, shall we?**

 **In other news, as well, I am looking for an artist to make me some new story art(Or even just a profile picture, I have wanted one for ages but haven't been able to find anyone to do so.) for my new Fanfictions I am writing, so if any of you are interested or willing, please hit me up.**

 **But besides that, enjoy, and** ** _love your Senpai_** **.**

 _World that Never Was… Organization XIII… Roxas… Maleficent, Pete… Kairi… The King… Donald, Goofy… Xemnas… Riku… Light…_

"Riku!" Sora gasped and sat up, wincing in pain as the wounds he got from his last fight against Organization XIII's leader reared their ugly head. Where… "Hey Jin, is he supposed to be in here, too?" Hearing voices that certainly _weren't_ familiar, Sora slowly glanced over to a pair of men(Wait, why was he in some type of chamber, and who was that red haired woman suspended in the glass?) who were once studying the woman, but now had their full attention on him. "I didn't hear anything about a boy inside here, too. Deal with him." The Sephiroth look-a-like(Okay, it was eery how similar they looked.) mumbled to the other imposing man in purple body armor, who then grinned as if he was just told Christmas had come early and started to make his way to the side where Sora himself laid, dazed.

"It's your unlucky day, kid." The man spoke to him(Well, he could always hope he was talking about some other teenager that was definitely not standing behind him instead, but Sora liked to believe he was more realistic than that.) as he pulled out a weird looking sword(Was that some kind of perverse lightsaber…?) that glowed ominously in the barely lit room. But, sadly for him, as he was taking his sweet, sweet time stalking towards him, Sora was getting more and more time to recover and readjust himself to what was happening in the here and now, and, no, he decided, he did _not_ want to die like _that_ today. So when the man had reached him and was about to stab a(To him-) stunned and confused teen through the heart, he was verily shocked when the kid kicked out, hitting him in the shin with enough force to make him grunt and fall to a knee while said kid leapt up and back pedaled some distance away into a ready stance, panting in exertion.

"Man, I already beat _one_ crazy maniac with the intent to wipe me from existence, now I have to deal with two MORE?" Truthfully it was more around the number of five(Did Xemnas's various forms count as individual people as well?), but they didn't need to know that, now did they? "Grah! Annoying brat!" The black haired one spat out as he stood back up and looked ready to glare Sora to death. "You might have gotten a lucky shot in, but you won't be so fortunate this time!" Not liking the position he was in, the keyblade master glanced around the room to see if there was any way of escape(On a good day he would have been all too ready to accept a fight from these guys, but after forcing his way through The World that Never Was, fighting off numerous Heartless and Nobodies, defeating the Organization members, and having to beat the roided up leader of said organization, he wasn't really feeling up to the task at the moment.), but the only door way that seemed to lead out was blocked by the silver haired man with the mask and a young girl around his own age in a yellow jumpsuit with a-

Was that a tiger?!

Either way it seemed that he was stuck between a rock and a hard place(Plus, who knew what they were going to do to that girl in the case- flashbacks of Hollow Bastion and its keyhole told him _nothing good_.), so it was go quietly, or try to put up a fight while losing horribly, or somehow win and escape(Preferably with the red head, but he could come back for her later if the need arose.).

Not exactly the hardest of choices, in Sora's honest opinion.

"Jin, Malos! What are ya doin'?!" The girl(Strange accent she had…) spoke out as she ran to try and stop the man from murdering this boy who had appeared out of nowhere, but their leader stopped her before she could get anywhere. "Jin?!" "Enough, Nia. We need to capture the Aegis, and this one seems like he is going to get in the way of that." "You're damn right, I am!" Sora grit his teeth(What was an Aegis?) as he leapt away from a sudden strike from who he had to assume was Malos and landed in front of the suspended girl and some sword sticking out of the ground, making his intentions known as he stared down the person that he knew had sinister plans for the girl behind him. "What's wrong with you, wanting to capture some defenseless girl?!" His own experience with having people close to him taken away only fueled his anger at the group before him.

"We should be asking you the same thing, BRAT!" Turning on his heel as the man from before tried to cut him in half from above, Sora dove out of the way and stumbled back to his feet. 'I can't fight them, as much as I want to! I'm outnumbered, injured, tired, Donald and Goofy aren't around so I can't use my Drive forms or Summons, and even if they _were_ here, my Drive Gauge if empty from that last fight with Xemnas! My magic is still replenishing itself, I don't think I have time to get out any items before one of them strikes at me again, heck, I'm not even sure I can change keychains for my Keyblade! I gotta slip past the other two at the door, and hopefully they don't follow me, and if they don't, I can get some items, change my Keyblade, have my magic back, and be ready to kick their butts anyway!' His plan of action set, he made a show of jumping above the peeved purple armor guy(Thank you, High Jump!) and Dodge Rolled away from some kind of strange bipedal creature(Was that a Heartless?!), and ran his way towards the door and the other two members of their group.

'Al-most-there-AHA!' Reaching the two members, the girl looked stunned and was likely not going to try and stop him, but the Sephiroth clone, on the other hand, had narrowed his eyes and retracted his blade from his back(Oh come on, he even had a blade like Sephiroths!) to prevent him from escaping himself, but Sora jumped over his slash, and Aerial Dodged the retaliating attack that came after, clearing the last of his obstacles as he made his way out of the room. About to utilize Quick Run to its fullest extent, he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the enraged black haired male once again in front of him and trying to bisect him like some sort of misfortunate anatomy dummy.

"Woah!" Dodging out of the way at the last second possible second, he still flinched when the blade cut through his outfit(Hey! This was his only pair!) and sliced into his stomach shallowly. Fumbling with his landing this time around, he was only able to watch in shock when the masked man sped at him and shoved his sword straight through his chest, hitting an organ in the process as Sora coughed up blood and slowly slid to the ground. "Bah, about time!" The purple outfitted man spat on the ground near the dying teen. "Most annoying bug I've ever had to displeasure of squashing." Sora could only cough up more blood as his vision once more started to fade. "Tch, I'll enjoy putting you out of your misery, you runt-"

"Malos." The other male stepped back and moved to leave the room. "We've wasted too much time as it is. We need to get the Aegis and move out." "But the brat-" "Is dying, anyway. Nia, call the Monoceros while Malos collects our prize." "But- you just…" "I need to go take care of the rest of our baggage in the meantime…" Blurrily, Sora saw the blob he knew to be this so-called 'Jin' leave the room as the other man audibly made a noise of disappointment and went over to procure the girl, and he cursed himself for being able to do nothing about it as he finally lost consciousness.

* * *

A ringing bell was the sound Sora awoke to as he slowly sat up in a patch of grass(Wait, wasn't he inside that chamber before he- oh no, was he _dead_?!) and looked around warily at his surroundings.

But, for the life of him, he could see nothing but plain for as far as the eye could see. Luckily for him, however, there seemed to be an end to said plain, by a cliff face with a singular tree standing tall and a figure that had to be human. So, lifting himself up(Huh, he felt as if he _hadn't_ fought a crazed nobody and gotten stabbed in the chest by a man he was starting to believe was Sephiroth's long-lost brother.), he made his way to the figure that he now realized was the same girl from the glass case. Finally getting within conversation range of the redhead(That shade reminded him of Kairi, in a way- oh god, _KAIRI_!), he decided to voice his concerns.

"Uh, are you alright? You seem kind of, sad, with the way you're staring out into space like that…" Sora awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with his hand as the girl continued to stare at nothing and the bell still rang out. "Heh… You got killed trying to help me, and you are worried about _me_?" The girl finally spoke up after a few moments of silence, and Sora couldn't help but be confused. "Well, I don't know about the _killed_ part, but, I always try to help a person in need! It's who I am!" At that, he grinned brilliantly(Not that she could see that, with the way her back was turned to him, but still!) and closed an eye. "So if there's a problem you have an issue with, you can bet I'll be doing everything I can to fix it!"

Silence rang out once more, and after enough time passed to make Sora think he had said something he shouldn't have, the girl couldn't hold in her laughter anymore and she started giggling like mad. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. You just sounded… So sincere, that I couldn't help but feel elated that someone actually cared about my plight." "Oh, uh, no worries. So, what's on your mind?" The teen made his way over to the side of the female and looked out at the expanse on the other side of the cliff, and whistled. "Man, sure looks nice. This your home, or something?" "Yes, actually. This is Elysium. The place… 'We' were born."

While Sora didn't have a clue as to why she had added a 'we' part in there, he got the gist of what she was fretting about. "Your home is in danger, isn't it?" The shocked look she sent his way told him everything. "Yeah, you'd be surprised how many times I've helped with that kind of thing. So I take it this isn't really your home land, but some kind dream or illusion, or what have you if I'm dead?" "A-A memory of it, yes. The real land is out in the real world, waiting for someone to enter it again after 500 years." "Alright! Then all we have to do-" Sora froze. "F-Five _hundred_ years?" "Uh-huh." "And… You say you were _born_ there…?" "That's right." He couldn't stop his jaw from hitting the floor, even if he wanted to.

"H-HOW OLD ARE YOU?!" "Oh, I'm over 500 years old!" The cheerful inflection she said that with had him reeling in shock. "But… _how_?" "I've been in a sort of stasis like state for the past few centuries- no one really wanted a being capable of destroying continents free to roam the lands, and my power wasn't really necessarily needed at the time…" C-CONTINENTS?! "... So I went to sleep for a while, waiting until I either was needed again, or a new Driver bonded with me." "R-Right." Still getting over this mind-shattering information, he shook his head as if that would clear it and continued on. "In, any case, sure, I'll help you get back to where you were born!" "You-You will?" The way her eyes lit up and her whole demeanor changed had him fighting back the urge to hug her in elation(Seriously, she was looking a little _too_ much like Kairi here…) as a massive grin overtook his face.

"You better believe it! I always help a friend, and I'd like to think of you as one, so of course I'll get you back to Elysium! Now all we have to do is wake… Up… Crap." Aaaaaaand it was only just now that Sora realized his plight in the 'Outside' realm. "Yes, I'm afraid you are bleeding out and won't be alive for much longer." Well _that_ sucked. Wait- "I'm not dead yet?" "No. I pulled you in here the moment you lost consciousness, but with your wounds, you won't be alive much longer than another 30 seconds or so… Or maybe a little longer, I had anticipated you being lost to the world when you first entered here, but you are surprisingly resilient." "Nah, that's what my other friends call 'Being too stubborn to die'." He joked as the girl giggled once again. "Normally I would give you some of my lifeforce to let you live, but, since we aren't bonded, I'm afraid I can't do so…" He didn't know why(Well, the similarities between her and Kairi notwithstanding.), but he hated seeing her so down, so he tried to reassure her.

"Relax, it's all good! I have a few ways to heal myself if I can wake up again, but I'm not sure if most of the ways are valid at this point in time…" "Oh, do you have a Blade that can heal your wounds for you?" Blade? That was a weird term, and, come to think of it, she also mentioned something about a 'Driver'(He liked to think he was a rather good one with how he got his Gummi Ship past all the Heartless and Nobodies that got in his way to get to the other worlds.). "Uh, not, no 'Blade', but I have some items and techniques that can heal my injuries. I'm just not sure if I have the energy to USE those techniques, or even grab the items on me with the way I'm off!" At the word 'Energy', the red haired girl perked up. "Well, if it's energy you're low on, I might be able to send some your way through this small bond I created with you when I pulled your conscious into here! Though, it won't be much, so I won't know if you'll be able to pull anything off..." Not entirely sure himself if he would be able to, he wanted to try nonetheless.

"Well, never know until you try! And if it does work out for the better, I'll come get you from those jerks, and before you know it, you'll be home in no time!" Sora grinned brightly at the beaming girl and outstretched his hand for a handshake, which the girl gladly took. "Oh, wait, I didn't even get your name." "It's Pyra." The girl smiled at him as where their hands met, a green light started glowing. "My names Sora. Nice to meet you, Pyra!" Soon the glow grew into a blaze as a green explosion expanded from where they were.

"Likewise, my Driver."

* * *

Waking up, face first on the floor, drowning in a growing pool of your own blood was _not_ a good way to regain consciousness, Sora decided as he raised himself up with his forearms.

Looking down to his chest, he saw the hole left by the asshole(Heh, get it?) with a Sephiroth theme when he stabbed him liberally spilling blood on the floor, and by the way his forearms barely held himself up, shaking like he had Parkinson's, he knew he had maybe a minute before he lost his life. Not wasting any more time at the thought, Sora reached deep within himself, only to find, to his dismay, that his magic, while replenished a tiny bit from a small surge of mana rushing into his body, was not enough to save himself by way of Curaga. Glancing at the pocket he knew held a Hi-Potion inside of, he was about to go on the painstaking adventure of reaching to the item holder and rummage around until he found it, he paused as he felt _another_ surge of energy flowing into him.

Not knowing what _that_ one was, he checked on his magic again, only to find no change in it, and considering he was still bleeding out, it wasn't a fix in his Health, either, and he wondered what in the name of the King it could be, before he had a realization that made him want to facepalm(Not that he _could_.) hard enough to leave an imprint for weeks to come. Feeling around for his Drive counter, he was flabbergasted to see that not only had it been _fully_ replenished(He remembered leaving it at around 1 or so bars because of having to use Limit twice in the last battle against Xemnas.), but it had in _creased_ by an entire third, leaving it sitting at a whopping 12 gauges in total.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, however, he quickly summoned up the will to transform into his favorite(And easily most used-) form, and was overjoyed when his power exploded outward in an impressive show of force and his various cuts and bruises along with the damage to what he now knew was his left lung simply vanished like they were never there. "Alright! I feel like 100 bucks!" Sora's signature goofy smile made its way to his face as he gripped his hands tightly into fists, but as he did that, he noticed something strange with his outfit. "Wait, this isn't Limit form!" Indeed it wasn't, as his jacket had taken on a shade of red not unlike that of Valor form, but lighter in color, and the shoulders, which were usually black in coloration, were now a vibrant emerald green, while the lilies that are usually apparent as designs on the sleeves became a sort of cross that, if Sora remembers correctly, was the same symbol he had seen on Pyra's chest, in the same emerald green, and his undershirt had taken on a nylon like quality that clearly outlined his chest and stomach regions, even if you couldn't see them.

His shorts, as well, turned nylon like, while his extra leggings took on the same color of the jacket of his outfit with the very bottoms becoming neon green as well, and the same cross took over the swords places as add-ons to his legs, while his shoes looked about the same, but the black spots were, once again, changed to that same nylon material. "This… _Looks_ like Valor form, but…" He held out a hand and summoned a small blaze into it. "I can use _magic_? Does that mean I can't use two Keyblades as well, or does this form sacrifice something else for that? Man, now I want to know what makes this form different!" As if to spite him for ignoring it, a strange handle of a weapon smacked him in the back of his head from it's cycle of spinning around the boy. "Ow… Wasn't that the sword that was stuck in the ground in front of Pyra before?" Rubbing his head as now aching head as the sword handle floated around him like it was a Keyblade and he was in his Final form, Sora only grew more confused. "It's certainly not a Keyblade, that's for sure. I wonder what it does-"

All of a sudden, the thing started acting up. It began spasming in the air as if it was having a seizure, before a great light stretched outward to form the missing blade part of the weapon, and, without any further prompting, an eruption of a major magnitude sprouted forth from its tip. It was no doubt extremely hot to the touch(The way it was currently burning through dozens of feet of metal told Sora _that_ much.), but for whatever reason, he wasn't finding the heat uncomfortable(Heck, if anything, it soothed him in a way that had only been done when he was held by his mother on those nights he had nightmares about a strange man eclipsing his world in darkness!... Which, now that he said it, wasn't really so much a nightmare as it was a Saturday night for him-) as it drilled its way through the entire hull of the ship until there was a gaping hole that lead to the outside world, full of stars in the night sky.

"... Convenient." Jumping from foot to foot to get the blood flowing again in his body, Sora then crouched down, low to the ground, and without further ado, utilized High Jump to its fullest and flipped through the air as he made his ascent to the upper level. "Yeeeeeee-HAW!" Sora hollered as he span into sight above… Whatever it was he was stuck inside of in the first place(He didn't really get a name when he was liberally ran through with that guys sword- wait, that came out wrong!), and landed gracefully in front of the massive hole made inside the floor from before.

"Woah…" And when he landed, he couldn't stop himself from taking in the bizarre sights before him.

Weird ships that looked like the cousins of the pirate ships he had seen firsthand, using what looked like balloons to keep them afloat on a sea of _clouds_ that went on for miles and miles. What was weird about that, though, was that he saw clouds in the sky as well, so if that was the case, would the things that seemed to replace oceans in this world be called, or were the two things still considered clouds, but just classified in a different way? And also, the inhabitants looked weirder than what he was used to(And coming from a guy who's seen talking lions, mermaids, and alive skeletons, that's saying something.).

"You!" Getting knocked out of his thoughts by a voice shouting at him, Sora looked over to the group standing beside the inferno that the sword floating near his back had caused. "And that _sword_ \- it can't BE!" Apparently it was, because he was standing right in front of the man. "You should get your eyes checked if you can't see what's right in front of your eyes, buddy." Reaching to his right side with his left hand, and his right hand to his left, he swiftly pulled his arms back as two Keyblades popped into existence in both hands(Winner's Proof in his left, the Ultima Keyblade in his right.). "And the other one should make sure that when you stab someone dead, they STAY DEAD!" Glancing behind him at where Pyra stood on a metal pole, he willed the sword to fly to its rightful owner so she could wield it herself. "Pyra, you want in on this?" "Sure, I wouldn't mind too terribly!"

"Jin! Take the girl. I've got a score to settle with the _boy_." "Well I hope you aren't going to be too sore about it going 0-2, then." Sora joked as the purple wearing man charged at him with the( _Blade_ , was it?) weird creature not far behind him, while Pyra engaged the silver haired man in combat and the other girl with the tiger just stood to the side, looking more conflicted then she possibly ever had in her whole life. "You're going to be eating those words when you're six feet under, BRAT!" The man screamed out as his light blue glowing blade slammed into Sora's Ultima weapon, but to his surprise, didn't even budge the smaller males weapon or stance. "You wouldn't be the first to try; heck, I doubt you'd even place near ten thousand!" Sora seemed to contemplate that as he slammed his other Keyblade into the side of the man, hurtling him to the right of the deck as he raised his Ultima blade again to stop a retaliating slash by the strange bipedal beast that grabbed the same blade from the air when the other man let it fly after he was hit. "Wow, that is actually a depressing thought, looking back on it…"

"YOU'RE DONE, KID!" Bringing up his other blade, he swiped at charging man, making him veer off course to avoid it. That in turn, however, was enough to let the beast he was locking weapons with back up and start slashing _energy streams_ at him(How come HE couldn't do that?!) that he had to consciously make an effort into destroying. "You know-" Sora started speaking to the people just gaping at the odd spectacle of him cutting green energy attacks in half while fending off an enraged man easily at least a foot and a half taller than him from slamming fist into his body. "-This is usually about the time where you _run away screaming_." And so they did, as they hurried to get off the ship(That Sora now knew actually _was_ a ship of some kind.) and onto the other vessel to hopefully get away from this mess.

"Wait, if they leave, how the heck are _we_ supposed to leave?" "IN A BODY BAG, TWERP!" Sora rolled his eyes as the man tried to throw a fist into the back of his head, but he flipped over his head and landed behind him, swinging out with his left blade and sending him rolling away face first(Much to his amusement.). Sadly, though, that bought his other opponent enough time(Or maybe he just finally decided to get serious, he didn't know.) to charge up a stronger attack, and soon Sora was on the receiving end of a green 'X' shaped blast. "You know, that thing reminds me of something, but for the life of me I can't remember what- JIMINIES CRICKET!" Panicking as the blast finally made it to his position(Although, what _did_ happen to Jiminy after that last battle?), he crossed both Keyblades over each other and swung back at the attack, struggling for a second or two before he overcame it and dispersed the energy.

"Okay, no more Mr. Nice Sora." He muttered to himself before swinging both Keyblades to either side of him, each gaining a red tint to them as heat started to pool around each weapon as magic pooled into them. "Fira-" Sora started as each of his blades burst into a blaze of fire that continued to grow in both size and power, and didn't look anywhere near ready to stop. "-GUN!" Roaring out the last part, he shot both blades forward at a speed the naked eye couldn't catch as the fire surrounding each of his Keyblades burst to life further, sending forth a stunning amount of the stifling hot flames that easily spanned the width of the entire top of the ship, and almost burned through the floor in its intensity.

"Holy-" Not even Sora was expecting the amount of destruction that spewed forth from his own weapons that FAR exceeded anything any of his past spells could have made as the black haired man's eyes widened and were almost engulfed, had the creature that was fighting alongside him not gotten in front of him and formed a circular shield reminisce of his own Reflect magic around the both of them. "My lady!" The tiger(It spoke, too?!) that was near the only other girl here besides Pyra also jumped in front of her with that same shield.

"Woah…" While that was happening, Pyra had been staring down the opposite side of Jin behind where Sora was fighting, as he seemed content to just stand there and observe the Aegis over fighting her himself. And their attention was soon brought over to where Sora had just unleashed an amount of fire enough to burn down a small forest, and Pyra, for her part, was just watching in awe at the spectacle. While she could also dish out an exceedingly large amount of an element like that, she was the _Aegis_ (Well, a 'Sort-of' Aegis, but still.), and he was just some(For a lack of a better term.) random teenage boy that had appeared out of nowhere( _Literally_.) a scant twenty or so minutes ago, and he had done THAT(WITHOUT her help, mind you!), with no sign of fatigue apparent on his face, like he could do that multiple more times before tiring out!

"My Driver, indeed…"

Sadly, while she was washing Sora in unobstructed praise(Inside her head, at least.), Jin had narrowed his eyes at the boy. Somebody with power like _that_ , needed to be dealt with, or there was no doubt in his mind it would be HIS plans that would be dealt with later down the line. And it was with that thought that he sped past a stunned Aegis and went to stab the teen again- with the intent to finish the job he hadn't completed last time out of a complacency that he most definitely wouldn't be showing this time. As he did that, Pyra snapped out of her thoughts quick enough to curse herself for such an amateur move, and yelled out a warning for her newfound Driver. "Sora, look out!"

The warning had come a bit too late, however, as Sora only had enough time to turn around after his Keyblades finished their fiery assault on his enemies and see a blur with a _suspiciously_ sharp object headed his way, and when he reached into himself to activate one of his ultimate defenses(Reflectaga.), he was greatly alarmed to find that find that it seemed to be locked away; just like how his magic was usually kept away from him in his Valor form. As he was panicking over his soon to be death( _Again_.), he started releasing a large amount of magic from his body to do something, _anything_ , to stop his impending doom. And as luck would have it, his Ultima Keyblade answered that calling as it slowly morphed into a grey sword with a blue handle, with what appeared to be gold fishbones trailing up the length of the blade as a gold heart with three spikes stretching out of the top of it appeared at the top of the weapon near the edge that acted as the main damage dealer of the thing while the keychain had transformed into a gilded heart.

Once the Keyblade had sufficiently morphed, magic pooled into it quickly and was forced out as a veritable maelstrom of wind burst around Sora, acting as both a shield and sword when the blade that was on a direct path to his heart struck a current of wind and veered off course, while the man handling the weapon received numerous cuts along his arm from getting the limb too close to the winds coursing around the spiky haired brunette, which he swiftly corrected as he regrouped with his group of evildoers. "Wha-" Needing a second to get over his near-death experience, he looked at the weapon in his right hand in shock, which was only furthered when he saw the nigh invisible winds whipping around him in a protective cocoon.

"A-Aeroga?! But I haven't been able to use that since I woke up in that basement in Twilight Town, and-" He looked back at his Ultima weapon. "This isn't my Ultima weapon- I mean, it _is_ , but this isn't the one I beat Xemnas with. No, this one's the one I had back when I fought Ansem." The Seeker of Darkness one, not the Ansem the Wise that Sora easily gets confused for one another. "So, did my Keyblade just, _transform_ to fit my needs when I needed it most, and then I suddenly gained the ability to use past magic from it?" Trying to call forth his other spells of Gravity and Stop proved to be useless, though, so Sora supposed it was only Aeroga for now.

But still…

"Man, did I miss this particular spell!" Grinning like a kid who was told Christmas had just come early(Who was he kidding, he'd be grinning like this if he was told that, too!), he had to stifle the urge to do a little jig when Pyra came running up to him, making sure not to touch or go near the razor sharp tornado that danced around the form of her Driver. "Sora, I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention, and-" "Relax, Pyra. I'm not dead or injured, so it all worked out in the end. Speaking of, though…" He slowly lost his grin as he stared at the little group that he _still_ knew nothing about(Seriously, they could have just wanted Pyra so that they could poison the world's ice cream supply to give everyone terrible stomach cramps for all he knew.) as they readied themselves once more to try and kill him and steal Pyra.

"Why don't you all just give up? You can't win this; not when I'm here with Pyra as my backup." While he wished to say it was true, he didn't honestly know if that was the case. So long as the third member of their little rag-tag team stayed out of it, and Jin kept underestimating them, he had no doubt they would get out of there. But Sora also didn't know for just how much longer this new Drive form of his would be lasting for(While he could use even his most energy consuming Drive form for up to an hour, that was because he had trained extensively with all of them beforehand- he only just got this form earlier today, and while he didn't know the exact time that had elapsed since he entered it, at least ten minutes had gone by, so this thing could go out at any second.), and if he was down to his base form, that would make this fight exceedingly harder with the purple man, strange beast, the Sephiroth fanboy, and if the girl and her pet joined the fray as well, he wasn't liking their odds.

"Forget it, brat! You signed your death warrant the minute you became the Aegis's DRIVER!" "Wait, weren't you all trying to kill me even _before_ that happened?" "Regardless." The one known as Jin waved his hand, and Sora had the sudden need to _get the hell out of there_! "Pyra!" Grabbing the girl around her waist, Sora used his Quick Run to avoid the barrage of bullets that assailed them from the ship that _definitely_ wasn't there a minute ago! "How come the bad guys get _all_ the cool things?!" Sora complained to himself as he outran the assault of bullets, only to find himself caught between a rock and a hard place when he was cornered by Jin and Malos, with the ship ready to fire in an instant. "Well, this is gonna suck." As he prepared to summon up an Aeroga to give them some protection again, it was proven to not be needed as the girl appeared before him on her tiger, and she had it blast them away to give him some breathing room to put Pyra down and prepare for the worst they could do. "ENOUGH! Jin, Malos, what are ya doin'?! He's just some random kid!"

" _Niaaaaaa_." The tone of voice the black haired man used was far from amused. "What are you DOING? That kid-" "Hey, pssst, 'Kid' is standing right here, you all realize." "-Isn't some random person. He made himself the _Aegis's DRIVER_!" There was that 'Driver' word again. Pyra called himself her Driver, and they called her an 'Aegis', whatever that meant, but he had not a clue what either of those things mean for him. "The Aegis's… Driver?" Whatever the 'Aegis' part meant had to have been important, though, because the way they talked about it made it seem like it was held on some sort of pedestal that was higher than anything else this world had to offer, and the way the girl(Nia, he corrected himself.) stared at him in awe only cemented this fact to him. "And if you wouldn't mind too terribly, move out of the way and let him DIE!" Once more the cannons opened fire on him, but the girl quickly rode her tiger to his aide and used that same shield from before to block the hail of bullets.

Sadly though, they were too much for them to handle and the shield soon broke and sent the tiger reeling while the girl went soaring through the air.

"Damn!" Running backward, he High Jumped into the air to catch the unconscious girl before she could go overboard and fall in the sea of clouds and landed back on the ship next to Pyra, while Malos raised his hand, clear for all to see. "It's over…" Motioning his hand down to signal for another round of fire to be shot, Sora kept cursing and summoned more Aeroga on everyone near him while Pyra got in position to create a shield just like the other ones he'd seen before. "... Why aren't they _firing_?" Malos grit his teeth and kept flagging for the bullets to start firing, but to everyone's confusion, the rain of metal never came. "What's taking Arkhos so long to _kill_ these little pests already?!"

' _My lord…'_

Suddenly, Sora felt a massive migraine coming on, and it was so bad Winner's Proof disappeared from his hand and he used the newly freed hand to grip his aching head. "What… Why does this feel so familiar…?" "What the hell are _these_ things?!" Looking over to where the shout originated from, Sora was alarmed to see that four Samurai's were currently doing battle against the remaining members of the group trying to get the Aegis. "Nobodies- _here_?" He was quick to recompose himself and get ready for an even _bigger_ battle, but before he could enter the fray(The two before him might be his enemies, but Nobodies and Heartless were the enemies to EVERYONE.), two more popped up in front of him…

 _Bowing_?

' _It is not prudent to stay here for any longer, your highness. Please take the portal with your new vassals and retreat from this skirmish.'_ Wait, was the Nobody talking to _him_? And what was this about a portal? He didn't get an answer(Or even just ask them in the first place.) to any of his questions as the two Higher-ranking Nobodies left to join their brethren in the fight against their common enemy. "Sora!" Glancing over to Pyra, he was surprised to find a Corridor of Darkness standing right next to her as she observed the portal in equal amounts of curiosity and caution. Looking back at the sight of the now only three Nobodies fighting a losing battle, he fought a clash inside his head on what to do, before ultimately deciding to leave to wherever the corridor was set to send him(I mean, it couldn't be anywhere _bad_ , right? Xemnas was dead- at least he _hoped_ he was, kind of hard to tell with the guy when he kept coming back after every time you offed him- and every type of High-ranked Nobody served under a specific member of the Organization, and with the way these ones appeared to distract Donald and Goofy back when he had his fight with Roxas, he was inclined to believe they served him, and he was complete with Roxas once again, so they wouldn't try anything, _right_?).

"Hey, uh, you there, with the fur-" "My name is _Dromarch_." "Yeah, right, you wanna come with us? I don't think your pals will much appreciate you after your owner tried to stab them in the back and help me." "That seems like the sensible choice, at this point in time." Letting the girl be carried on the back of the creature, he sent them through the darkness first while Pyra wasn't far behind. Taking one final look at the last standing Nobody, who coincidentally looked back to him as well, he could have sworn he saw it give a minute nod before charging back in to engage with its foes one last time as Sora escaped through the gateway into the unknown.

* * *

"Oh, my aching _everything_." The brunette protagonist groaned out(Note to self: Never go through a Corridor of Darkness, _ever_.) as he slowly slid his eyes open, only for his vision to be obscured by two perfectly sculpted moundtains(See what I did there? Eh, eh?) and a concerned red haired girls face. "Pyra…? Did you get the license plate number of the Gummi Ship that t-boned me?" "I'm sorry, _what_?" Shaking his head to rid the cobwebs in them, he leapt to his feet and laced his arms behind his head. "Ah, nothing. Just a little inside joke from where I'm from."

Speaking of that, though, he hoped everyone was okay. All he knew was that his Nobody(Was Naminé considered his Nobody? Hm.) had created a way for them all to escape(To where, he would likely never know.), but before he and Riku could enter, the _final_ , final battle against Xemnas had begun and his last memories of after the battle were worrying about Riku(Who had taken quite a beating in the last leg of the event.), a flash of light, and then he had just kind of… Woke up in this entire mess.

Sighing to himself, he took a gander at his surroundings, trying to see if he could pinpoint where they had landed, but to his dismay, he couldn't, as they were apparently still on the same world(If that same body of water made of clouds was anything to go by, at any rate.), just on a different land mass filled with wildlife and trees for miles. "You wouldn't happen to know where we're at right now, would you, Pyra?" "I am afraid that I do not." Clicking his tongue as his partner in not-so-crime got up to stand next to him, he contemplated what to do next. "Well, somewhat expected that." He wasn't expecting the girl who was trapped inside a veritable coffin for apparently _five hundred years_ to know where they had landed. "Still." He finally turned around and started making his way across the trail he had noticed in his earlier observation. "We should head onwards to get a clue, at least. Plus we should probably find the girl that we took with us, to at least make sure she arrived in one piece…" Nodding silently to his plan of action, the two headed out into the forest proper on a quest to find where they were.

"Hey, Sora…" "Yeah?" Said teen looked over to the girl walking besides him. "What was… That eery portal that transported us here?" Oh yeah, he guessed she would be as curious over things he's seen and used before just as much as he was with the same things she has viewed in this world as well. "Where I'm from, we call it a 'Corridor-to-Darkness', and it's essentially a means of transportation from one place to another…" He left out the obvious fact that the transportation was almost exclusively used to travel from world to world. "I, see. And, where _are_ you from, Sora?" Uh-oh. Quick Sora, keep the balance of the worlds! No meddling(Wait, wasn't he already messing with it?)! "Oh, just some remote location that not a lot of people know about. And it was even one of those portals that teleported me to where you were being held! Heh heh, heh…"

Lying wasn't exactly his strongest suite.

"Oh, what was it called?" Luckily for him, the girl wasn't the best at catching onto fabricated stories. "It was called Destiny Island… A real peaceful place, really. So peaceful, even, that some people couldn't stand it and decided to leave to go on a journey to see what else was out there." He chuckled to himself as he thought about the events that lead up to all of this, events that seemed like ages ago not even taking place two years before. "Did… Something happen to it?" "Ah, you could say that. It was attacked, and it forced me to leave or be swallowed up in the chaos. Haven't seen it in a while; not even sure _what_ it looks like, now." "And that's how we ended up meeting?" "Just about." Well, it wasn't really a lie, per-say, because if it wasn't for the Heartless attack back then, he wouldn't be here right now.

"Well, I don't want to seem insensitive, but… I'm kind of glad it worked out like that in the end." Looking over at her in unobstructed confusion mixed with shock, she saw and quickly gave her reason. "Don't get me wrong, it's horrible that it happened! But, if not for that, then you wouldn't have met me, and became my Driver, plus who knows what those two would have done with me had you not saved me. And for that, I am grateful…" Keeping his gaze on her for a while longer, he eventually looked back forward and grinned cheerfully. "Now _that_ I can understand. Don't worry, Pyra, I'd rather have been here to save you than be back home right now anyday! It's like I said, I can't help but want to help people, ya know?" He laughed and started walking backwards, giving Pyra one of his patented closed eye grins. "Sora…" Her breath hitched and she placed a hand over her heart. "Thank you…"

"... But when did you get time to change clothes in between waking up and starting to fight Jin and Malos?" "Huh?" Sora, with his ever-intelligent responses, was confused about what she was talking about before she pointed at his outfit. "When we were talking in my… Memory, you had the almost the same outfit on, but now your attire closely resembles my own color scheme." Looking down to see that he was still in that new Drive form of his, he was shocked to see it hadn't disappeared by now. "What the- Pyra, how long was I out?" "Well." She placed a finger on her chin in thought. "I was out along with you, but then I woke up, so I don't know how long _that_ was, but considering it's day I'd say we were out all night, and you woke up about ten minutes after I did."

A-A whole _night_?! He was out for the entire night and he STILL hadn't reverted to his base form?

That wasn't right. So with a frown Sora went to check on his Drive Gauge, and was thoroughly shocked to find that he wasn't even CLOSE to running out of juice yet- if anything, he had gained _more_ Gauges as time went on, as before he was sure it was clocked at three just like every other time he entered a form for the first time, but now it was at _nine_ , and was _steadily GROWING_?! Indeed, as unlike when time passed in his other forms and the Gauge slowly depleted, this one seemed to be slowly _gaining_ in quantity, instead of the reverse position. What was more, was that he could have sworn he saw a strange golden glowing string that was attached to Pyra connect itself with his Drive bar, but he didn't know if he was seeing things or not.

"Sora?" Startled out of his thoughts by a concerned Pyra, Sora quickly adjusted himself accordingly and answered her question. "Oh, it's a power of my outfit. Whenever I have a close bond with someone, I can take on a 'Form', so to speak, where I generally take on an appearance similar to the bonded person, and gain abilities based on what that person's greatest strengths are, as well." " _Really_?" The girl beside him breathed out as she, without hesitation, reached out and gripped the material of his jacket with one hand, and started rubbing the nylon part of his undershirt to see if it was exactly like her own. "Um, Pyra? That's kind of my stomach you're rubbing, there." Of course, her prodding hadn't gone unnoticed and Sora, for his part, was feeling rather uncomfortable because of it. "Oh, sorry!" Finally realizing what she was doing, she retracted her hands and blushed a bit(It was hard to tell, though, because her face had seemed to be have a permanent pink attached to them.).

"It's cool, no harm done." Sora waved it off. "I would be curious too, if I was in your shoes." "Sorry, again. I just had this sudden compulsion to feel the material for myself, and I couldn't help it. But besides that, you also said you gained abilities revolving around the person, as well?" "Yep!" He popped the 'P' as they continued to stroll through the forest. "Comes in handy in sticky situations! Though… This one seems to be lasting longer than most of the other ones I've used." A _lot_ longer. "Interesting… Was that how you were able to unleash that huge blast of fire from before?" "I'm not sure, actually. I've shot fire before, but never of something on THAT magnitude! You must be really powerful if I was able to do something like _that_ with your help!" Pyra couldn't stop the blush from coming up on her face at the praise even if she wanted to. "Oh, I'm not _that_ strong. Plus you did that all on your own, I had little or nothing to do with it." "Nonsense! You gave me the boost in power to be able to do that! Without you, none of that would have been possible." "Then, am I _also_ responsible for that?"

Turning to see what she was pointing to, Sora was amused to see Pyra's sword lazily floating behind him.

"I, _do not_ know."

 **Sora's New Drive Form:**

Drive: Integrity

Action:

Key Bash(Powerful stabbing attack that utilizes both Keyblades to smash into an enemy. Does double damage when used in the back of an enemy.)

Dual Spinning Edge(Using both Keyblades, spin 360 degrees to slash the enemy twice with each weapon. Does double damage when used at the side of an enemy.)

Rolling Slash(Covering both Keyblades in unbearably hot fire, the user flips through the air and comes directly down on top of an enemy, slashing them and sending the flames flying in every direction, attacking nearby enemies as well. Reduces enemy aggression by 30% when successfully landed.)

Flaming Implosion(Takes in the mana around the Aegis sword floating around Sora, collecting it into a small point that is then unleashed against nearby foes.)

Subtle Revolution(The Aegis sword slams into the ground, causing pillars of fire to erupt beneath all enemies. Followed up with Sora throwing his Keyblades into the foes, damaging them further.)

Annihilating Inferno(Concentrating magic into all three of his weapons, Sora locks onto a specific target that is then blasted with an intense fire, incinerating them and leaving naught but dust.)

Triple Combusting Avatar(With the help of Pyra, Sora conjures three large constructs of fire in the shape of his Kingdom Key that then slam into a foe before bursting into white hot flames that destroy anything unlucky enough to get in its way.)

Retaliating Slash

Magic Spice

Slapshot

Guard

Hurricane Period

Strike Raid

Ragnarok

Aerial Finish

Counterguard

Explosion

Magic Haste

Master Magic

Master Magician(Allows the use of spells that were once available to the user, plus new ones that were gained through extensive experience and exposure to Magic.)

Growth:

High Jump MAX

Quick Run MAX

Dodge Roll MAX

Aerial Dodge MAX

Glide MAX

Fire Mastery MAX(Take no fire damage and absorb any elemental attacks of the name that would normally be taken as damage and instead add it to your health.)

Support:

Purifying Flames(When using a Limit, spell, Art, or finishing combo, there is a 20% chance to heal any status ailments the user has.)

Resplendence(Increases damage dealt by Limits, spells, arts, or finishing combos by 75% when used to interrupt an art or spell.)

Flaming Edge(Increases critical damage by 50%.)

Synch Blade

Aegis Assault(Wield the Aegis blade with telepathy, leaving the hands free to use other weapons as well.)

Scan

Aerial Recovery

Combo Plus

Combo Plus

Combo Plus

Air Combo Plus

Air Combo Plus

Air Combo Plus

Combo Boost

Air Combo Boost

Critical Plus

Critical Plus

Damage Drive

Leaf Bracer

Magic Lock-On

Draw

Treasure Magnet

Lucky Lucky

Lucky Strike

Item Boost

Fire Boost

Fira Boost(Increase damage done with fire-based attacks by 30%.)

Firaga Boost(Increase damage done with fire based attacks by 50%.)

Fira-Gun Boost(Automatically increases any fire based magic to the maximum tier; Fira-Gun.)

MP Haste(Note, that I am making MP Haste like what it was in the first game, so attacking replenishes MP again.)

MP Hastera

MP Hastega

MP Hasteja(Increase MP restoration speed by 100%.)

Second Chance

Once More

Defender

Form Boost

Blade Boost(When connected with a Blade through Drive form, increases Affinity gained and lowers the drain on it when hit.)

Weapons(These will change with the current Keyblade Sora wields.)

No Experience(Winner's Proof)

Magic Consul(Increases Sora's magic pool by 30%; Ultima Weapon(KH1).)

Flip-the-Switch(Allows Pyra to use the Aegis sword while Sora is in Integrity form, and when near each other, damage done with the blade increases by 50%; Aegis Sword.)


	2. Chapter 2

**Oilo! It is I, your Senpai, back with another update!**

 **This one took a little longer than I would have liked, but plans almost never come to fruition so, meh.**

 **And a lot of you are going to probably be pissed at me towards the end of the Chapter, but I'll just say now, this story concept has always intrigued me, and I was originally going to write a story that had that concept in it as well, but then I stopped making those first person stories and am now writing a series of third person ones, so I will use it here.**

 **Now, some of you had questions(And some of you had monologues spanning half of the screen- you know who you are.) regarding the story, so I will take to answering any questions asked in the Reviews at the start of every new chapter now(And if I don't do that here or if I say I have no fucking clue what you are talking about, always feel free to PM me about it later.).**

 **Some are wondering if Riku and the others are going to be in the story- I'll say this now, I was originally going to have this be a Sora only fic with no other characters appearing whatsoever(Don't get me wrong, I love Kairi, Riku is a bit of a dick, though(And I absolutely hate how they made him out to be in DDD.), and they nerfed Donald and Goofy hard in the second game, which saddened me, and none of this has to do with why I am not including them in the story at all, so I will stop talking.), but I think I will have them make an appearance next chapter in a cameo, just to write them off and be done with it so I won't get more questions in the future regarding it.**

 **To the question regarding new Blades, well, that is kind of answered at the end of this Chapter, so I won't get into that one(To hnh058513(Thanks for making a name that made me have to switch tabs five different times to spell it right, by the way.), though, I have no idea what on Earth you are talking about, so I am going to have to say... 5? Yeah, sure, that's the correct answer for anything.).**

 **But with that said, I will end the part of the story no one bothers to read anyway and get on with the story!**

 **PRAY TO THE SENPAI!**

"So, Pyra, what is this 'Driver' thing you keep mentioning?" Currently, Sora and Pyra were walking through what seemed to be a swamp, and the place was crawling with strange monsters and beasties that Sora had never had the displeasure of seeing before that all seemed aggressive, if the way they kept pouncing on him trying to probably kill him was any indication.

Not that it did them any good, as one good swing of the Aegis Sword thanks to his telekinesis(Which he still didn't have a good answer for other than 'Magic' to give his companion…), they either became knocked out and thrown away, or were bifurcated in half by the power of his swing(He was currently working on how powerful he made his swings, but nine times out of ten, still, he was killing the poor things.).

And as another 'Clap Bunnit'(If what his Scan ability was telling him was to be read as true.) jumped towards him, ready to sink it's teeth into his flesh, the sword did the latter as either side of the ripped in twain bunny like-animal sped past Sora, he couldn't help but be annoyed by that fact.

"Wait, you don't know what a Driver is?" "Mmmm, nope, can't say that I do." He put his hands behind his head as he walked backward, giving the girl an apologetic shrug as they made their way across the land. "But, your weapons, I thought they were from another Blade that you were already bonded with." "Huh? Oh, no, I had the Keyblade as a weapon long before I even learned about, what did you call it, 'Blades'." " _Really_? Did you create it yourself, then?" "Ah, no, the Keyblade is kind of, sentient, I suppose, and it chooses its wielder, and I happened to be that next wielder." "Oh? Is there any specific traits that made you a desirable handler of it, then?"

Now that he thought about it, why _did_ the Keyblade choose him, of all people? He knew that Riku was meant to take the Keyblade from the very start, but because of his heart allowing the darkness inside of it he lost that privilege, but, why _him_? If what happened at Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town was any indication, he was never meant to wield one in the first place, and Riku even stole it, showing his aptitude to wield the weapon was above Sora's own, and the only reason he was able to steal it back was because of Riku's heart being the lesser of the two in a time of weakness.

But why didn't the blade go to someone else? Someone with a better ability to control its power, or even someone with more experience than him? Even Kairi was able to use her very own Keyblade back at the Castle That Never Was, so why didn't the Keyblade go to HER, then?

Pushing down his self-consciousness, Sora tried to answer the question as best he could. "Er, well, I guess you could say- OW!" He was interrupted, however, when something fell from the canopy of the surrounding trees and smacked right into his head. "Sora, are you okay?" "Yeah…" Rubbing his head to try and alleviate the ache that settled into it, he scanned the trees above them with suspicion. "But what was that?" Pyra, meanwhile, glanced below to his feet, and saw an odd glimmering a few feet away from him. "Is that what hit you?" Looking at where Pyra was pointing to, he too found the small glint that reflected light hidden away in the tall grass around them.

Kneeling down, the self-proclaimed Keyblade Master plucked the small object off the ground and stood back up while holding it up in the air to get a better view, examining it.

The object in question, was a small silver ring, which looked like it was layered in vines of a deep green, making it look like nature had done its damndest to swallow the small accessory up and prevent the outside world from knowing what it looked like before. Luckily for Sora, the majority of it was still untouched, so he could make out a small engraving on the inside of the ring and the small, forest green stone that was fused into the front of the piece of jewelry. "H-E-A-R-T. Heart?" Flipping it over in his hands to see if he could find anything else of importance on the thing, he was disappointed to find nothing.

"What do you think it could mean?" He asked his red haired companion, but she couldn't seem to make out what the word could mean, either. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he was about to just put it back down on the ground, when he swore he saw a flash of light coming from the tiny stone inside of the piece of metal. Narrowing his eyes, he studied the stone intently for what seemed like minutes, before he definitely saw the glow that escaped from the gem, making his eyes widen as he recalled a time in the past where he saw similar rocks give out light as if alive before.

Was this a-

"Sora!" Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked around and saw that he had apparently continued walking without conscious thought, and was now standing on a bridge with a dead tree(Which he had been a few inches away from ramming into, it would seem.) laying in the middle, barring further passage across. Not feeling particularly hopeless, he was about to make a move to pick up Pyra and High Jump past this obstacle, when said girl stepped forward and pushed him back a little. "Allow me…" Closing her eyes in concentration, she stood like that for a few seconds before snapping open her eyes that now glowed with a fiery spark, and suddenly the tree combusted into ash, allowing them to move forward unhindered.

"Wow!" That was some master class stuff, right there! If he had tried to do that with any of his spells, it would have just either not been powerful enough and just set the tree(And not soon after-) and bridge on fire, or he would have made it TOO powerful and just blasted away everything in a fifty foot radius. But she was able to minimize the power of her fire enough to actually destroy the tree and not anything else! "Nice going, Pyra!" "Well, you know." She blushed a little at the praise while smiling and fidgeting a little. "It wasn't _that_ special."

Sora just looked at her with an expression akin to a fish out of water.

"Heck yeah that was special- if I had tried that, we'd be falling to our deaths, right now! Your control over fire is astounding!" "Oh, stop." She blushed more and smiled a little bigger. "I'm sure you could have done that if you had wanted to, as well." He gaped more. "Like hell I could! With me it's either not enough or too much, no in between like what you did!" To demonstrate, he moved further ahead off the bridge while slipping the small piece of jewelry onto his left hand's ring finger, and walked to a nearby tree around the same size as the one Pyra had just destroyed. "Watch." Channeling his magic through his veins, he called upon his fire as well, and tried to just set fire to the tree without lighting anything else a blaze, but also tried giving it enough power to make it burn to ash as well.

And was promptly stumped when he did just that, and recreated what Pyra had just done not five minutes earlier.

"Wh- _What_? How did I-" He looked at his hands in a amazement. "Interesting. You seem to have gotten my control over fire with that, what was it called? 'Form' of yours, along with being able to use the Aegis Sword." She tapped her chin as she moved to stand beside him. "It must have to do with you being my Driver that you're able to do all these things." There was that word again! "Getting back to one of our previous subjects, what exactly _is_ a-"

He was interrupted once more(He was going to find out what it was one of these days, damn it!) by the sounds of battle coming not to far ahead of their current location.

"... We are _so_ continuing this later." Sighing, he and Pyra made their way up the hill they were hiking on to see what was going on, and Sora was slightly disgusted to see that the two (Hopefully ex-) members of the group that tried to kill him were fighting off a giant toad like thing that towered over even himself(And he thought he was going to have nightmares after seeing a Stealth Sneak for the first time- HA!). Grabbing the floating sword orbiting his body, he wound up for a pitch and shot forth a stream of fire that engulfed the creature and eviscerated it into less than dust.

"Wha- YOU?!" "Yes, _me_." Sora was rather amused at the reaction(Or overreaction, in this case.) of the slightly shorter jumpsuited girl as he made his way over to where she and her pet(Could it be considered a pet? Bah, whatever.) had been about to make their last stand. "What are you doin' here?!" "That seems like a redundant question, so I'll give a redundant answer: I came here for some tiger _stew_." Shaking her head for asking such a stupid question in such a belligerent way, she tried again. "Right, sorry. It's just- I'm still kind of in shock at what the others were tryin' to do…" "You mean kill me?"

Wow, it was extremely awkward to find out just how desensitized he had become talking about things trying to murder him.

"It's fine, I'm used to it by now. By the way, I didn't quite catch your name when your partners were trying to skin me alive before, my names Sora." He grinned and held out his hand for her to shake. "... Nia." After a few seconds of scrutinizing his limb to see if he looked ready to attack her, she finally took his hand in a greeting. "Well, Nia, I'm glad to see that you are alright after all that excitement." " _Yeah_. About that- just _how_ did I, er, we, end up here in the first place?" The girl frowned and crossed her arms. "Dromarch said something about white… _Things_ , and a dark portal of some kind, but that seems a little far fetched."

"That's right!" Everyone turned to see Pyra placing a fist into her hand as she just remembered something. "Those things from the ship! They were what held Jin and Malos off long enough for us to leave, and even gave us our means of escape. What were they, though? I've never seen anything like them, and they seemed to defer to you, Sora." He had actually forgotten about that. "Ah, of course you all wouldn't know what those things are. You see, where I'm from, we call those 'Nobodies', because they lost their hearts, and are virtually just empty husks of their former selves, with no other purpose than to either FIND a purpose, or follow the orders of what they consider 'Superiors'."

Seeing that they weren't following along with what he was saying, he went into a further explanation. "You see, people are able to lose their hearts- and if they lose those hearts, then the hearts eventually form a creature called a "Heartless', whose sole purpose is to go out and try to steal MORE hearts, which just continues the vicious cycle. Luckily, there are people that are tasked to put a stop to them and their rampages across other w- lands. I happen to be one of those tasked with preventing them from harming others, which I have, numerous times, in fact. And while there doesn't seem to be any _here_ , you can never know. But what I have only come to find recently, is that with every heart stolen, an empty husk of the person that's heart was stolen is left behind, and from that husk, a Nobody is formed."

"Waaaaaaaaaaa-wa-wa-wait! Stealing peoples _hearts_? Turning them into _monsters_? What do you take us for, a bunch of children? You're just spouting a bunch of poppycock!" Nia was entirely skeptical of this information, and all Sora could do was shrug. He didn't have much proof outside the Nobodies that had appeared on the ship(While the girl was _unconscious_.) and his Keyblade, which could easily just be pushed aside as some strange looking weapon, as there seemed to be several of those in this world.

The only real thing that would prove their existence would be for one to pop up for them to see(Which, as much as Sora didn't like being considered a liar, he would much more prefer to be titled than have _any_ Heartless show up to prove him otherwise.).

"Say what you will, I've seen them first hand, and battled them as well. In fact, I even hold the best defense against them as my own weapon." He raised his hand up and summoned his old Ultima Keyblade into his hand, startling the two in the party that had yet to see him to anything like that. "This, is the Keyblade. It is the best, and supposedly last, defense against the Heartless, and gives me powers I wouldn't hold otherwise, along with being able to unlock ANY lock or keyhole in existence." Once again, the young girl looked unconvinced. "While I admit it has the appearance of a key- albeit a giant one- I doubt it can do more than be swung around a bit for some extra damage you couldn't do with your hands."

Okay, now Sora was starting to get a little annoyed.

"You said that these Nobodies have no real motive other than to try and prove they exist, or follow orders of people they consider higher than themselves, does that mean that you are one of them?" Not one to believe someone would lie about something of this magnitude, Pyra wanted to know more about both these strange beings and her Driver. "Well, not, _really_. You see, there are generally three types of Nobodies; the Low-ranking ones, the High-ranking ones, and then, there are the Nobodies that were strong enough when they were a full person to actually gain some form of sentience, and even take on a form similar to what they looked like when they were complete. The lower ranked ones follow just about anyone because they are lower on the food chain then everyone else, while the higher ranked tend to only follow their chosen masters, who are the third type I was talking about before."

"Wait, does that mean that you are…?" "No, no! I am perfectly fine, I have a heart and everything! But…" He hesitated a bit at this part. "The Nobodies that you saw before, used to be under the employ of _my_ Nobody. Before you say anything, yes, I lost my heart once, and I _did_ become a Heartless, but I regained myself not long after! But my Nobody was another matter… While I existed, he, too, was still roaming around as well, which is almost unheard of, actually. Eventually, though, we met, and after some… _Talking_ , we fused back with each other, and I became complete once more. But what I don't understand, is why those Nobodies appeared and acted like I, myself, was a Nobody."

Did they mistake him for Roxas, now that they were now the same being again…?

"Maybe you don't have to be a Nobody for them to want to follow you?" Seeing his distant look that meant he was in thought, Pyra tried to come up with an answer. "I don't think that is the case, but then again, I'm not really an expert on them, so who knows? But still. Hopefully we won't be running into more any time soon." Shrugging, he looked up at the sky and noticed it was getting rather late. "Well, it's going to be night soon, and I doubt anyone wants to travel then, so why don't we lay low for the night and continue on in the morning?" Everyone seemed to think that was a decent plan, so they went out to search for a place to set up camp for the night.

* * *

"So this is Torigoth?" Sora whistled in appreciation. "Not too shabby, I must say." "Gee, the town appreciates your approval of how it looks." Nia rolled her eyes and made her way into the city. "But it also said to give it a heads up next time so it can put on some make-up beforehand." Sora smirked as he followed behind. "Tell it thanks but no thanks, I prefer natural beauty over fake glamour any day."

After another day of traveling, they had finally reached their destination of the province of the giant Titan(And wasn't Sora surprised to find out that they were situated upon a giant moving, breathing, living creature nearly triple the size of the dragon form Xemnas had transformed into before.). In that time, nothing too eventful had taken place other than Nia asking if Sora was daft when he had to ask, for the umpteenth time what in the hell a Driver was. With Sora heading the pack(Nia and her Blade had insisted he take point when they found out he lazily wielded the Aegis Sword _telepathically_ , and easily killed anything that tried to kill them in turn with one swing.), nothing had halted their strides and they made great time in reaching the only city on this continent.

Sora was slowly becoming more and more worried, however, when he _still_ wasn't returning to his base form, even after literal days had passed, and he was starting to wonder if he would ever be able to go back at ALL so long as he stayed on this world(And considering he promised Pyra he'd help her get back home, who knew how long that would be.). The one time he had tried to revert back to normal the manual way had gone horribly, as well, because he noticed that as long as the thin, golden thread of magic connected him to Pyra, he couldn't exit the form.

Then he had tried something he know considered the worst moment of his young life(Even taking into consideration that he had _stabbed himself with a sword through the heart and turned into a Heartless_.), and forcefully pushed his magic outward to make an attempt at severing the cord connecting the two of them. That backfired very quickly, when Pyra suddenly gained a panicked look on her face and turned to him so fast he was afraid she might get whiplash on her neck, and he could have sworn that he saw all the surrounding magic flowing in the air collect into the red haired Blade, and then not soon after _shoved_ it's way past his magic that he was using to break out of this form, and viciously slam into him while forcefully reestablishing the connection.

Did he mention that there was a _lot_ of magic surrounding them, and that when it forced itself onto him, he started having an aneurysm from the complete overload of being forced to withstand what was around the equivalent of several dozen tons of pressure compressing itself onto his entire body?

Because that was a thing.

It had been an agonizing five minutes, with blood oozing from his nose, mouth, eyes, and even the ears while he felt like he was being crushed under one of the buildings Xemnas had thrown at him in the beginning of their fight(Or seven, he wasn't really lucid enough to do math properly.). He had to withstand the pain, as well, because any time he tried to bring up his magic to heal himself, the magic that he was starting to think was Pyra's viciously beat it back down, most likely believing it would try another attempt to sever the bond between them, only succeeding to make the pain _worse_ , and when Nia had tried to help, the magic backfired on _her_ (Pyra's magic was apparently really possessive- who knew?).

Thankfully it only lasted five minutes, and afterwards, he was free to cast his magic again(Though now that anytime it was used, he noticed the thread attached to his Drive Gauge would thicken, as if it was already pumping more magic into the bond just in case it needed to make another quick retaliation against another attempt.), but Pyra was beside herself with worry, and the strange thing was that she didn't seem to realize that she was the cause of it, and thought that sending more 'Ether'(Their name for magic, apparently- which, made sense, actually, considering he used Ethers to restore his own magic when it was low-) to him through their bond would help, especially when she felt their bond weaken before completely disconnecting.

When he saw her distraught face, he couldn't bear to tell her the truth, so he said without her, who knew what would have happened to him(One less agonizing experience in his life, but she didn't need to know that.).

That aside(For now-), they all entered into the city, and Sora was confused to see what looked like all the towns inhabitants standing around a pack of people dressed in completely black outfits that made them look like some kind of cult. "Fie! Who has the courage to heed the Empire's call? Your strong heart today, will build a strong Mor Ardain tomorrow!" Sora tilted his head. "What is he talking about?" "What, you don't know what the Empire is, either? Were you dropped on your head as a child?"

Sora looked at her, in shock.

"How did you know?" Cue the sweat drops. "No, I- ugh, nevermind! The Empire is going around for 'Diver Recruitments'." When he still didn't look like he was getting it, Dromarch continued. "The pool of potential Driver's is ever shrinking, so they must go around to where they can to find candidates. They must have run out of them in the army and have come here to find more." They were interrupted from the explanation by everyone in the crowd quieting down when a large man of a man went up to the podium and grabbed the crystal, making him glow a in a golden light as he made some not really reassuring sounds.

"Oooooooh, boy. He's a goner." Sora turned to Nia. "What do you mean by 'Goner'?" She just pointed at the man, whose body finally seemed to give out as the glow disappeared and large tears appeared that soon spurted an unholy amount of blood as the now dead man fell lifelessly to the ground. "WHAT THE _FUCK_?!" Sora's shout of incredulity went unnoticed in various yells and screams of similar natures that were rampant throughout the large mass of people, while Pyra just covered her mouth to not let the gasp escape it from witnessing the horrid event.

"Oh, all bark and no bite!" The leading man motioned for the other soldiers near him to get the corpse letting blood pool around them out of there while everyone seemed to take some steps back from what they assumed was a cursed artifact. "Nia, what the hell did I just see?!" "He couldn't handle the Core Crystal's power. When someone not worthy of wielding a Blade touches one, something similar to that happens. Although, that one was one of the worse ones I've seen. Must have been really unqualified for the job…"

"Wow, wow, wow!" Sora waved his hands through the air to get her attention. "You mean _that_ , could have happened to ME?" ON the outside he was playing it off as a curious question, but on the inside, a Chibi him was running around in a panic at the fact that he could have been bleeding out on the floor somewhere in the middle of nowhere. "I don't know." She shrugged. "Depends on whether Pyra wanted that to happen or not, I suppose." Suddenly remembering what happened the day before involving Pyra, Sora was immensely grateful that she had not rejected him.

Gotta give love to the small(Or not so small.) miracles.

"Right. The mention of my own mortality aside, we should probably get out of here- you're not very wanted in these parts right now, and if those other 'Torna' members catch a whiff of Pyra's scent from someone who caught a glance at her in this city, they'll be after her in a heartbeat, so let's move." Getting a nod form the girl, they all moved out before anyone would notice them and make a scene about it.

Making their way through the crowded streets, they passed the various vendors and exited the town center into a small trail on the sides of the shop buildings. "Phew; well, at least we have some breathing room, now-" "HALT!" Freezing at the voice, everyone turned around to where they had just entered from, and saw troops similar to the ones they had watched before running up to them. "Um, I don't suppose they are here to sell us cookies?" Looking behind them, Sora was disappointed to see that they had been surrounded. "Oh come on! Why are they singling _us_ out?!"

Everyone gave hima deadpan stare, and pointed directly behind him, to which he turned and sweatdropped as the floating Aegis Sword met his gaze. "... You know, telepathy isn't really a desirable trait when it comes to stealth, as I have just found out." Sora face palmed. "You, there. The spiky haired idiot." "Hey! My hair isn't _that_ spiky!" "You are in the company of an enemy of the state! A member of 'Torna'!" Sora raised a finger. "To be fair, it's _ex_ -member now." They didn't seem to care all that much. "And you yourself look like a Driver. Registration number?" Sora thought long and hard to come up with something to say.

"... 69?" Half the members of his party sent him dry stares while Pyra just put her hand on her head and shook her head. "Bah, lucky guess!" Everyone sent wide eyed looks to the leader of the soldiers. "You obviously just guessed a random registration number, which means you don't have one yourself! You're an illegal Driver, aren't you?" If only they were talking about Gummi Ship driving- wait, was he even legally allowed to drive those ships, now that he thought about it? "Okay, that does it! You're all coming in with me! We'll see what the Consul has to say about this."

Nia and Sora glanced at each other, before Nia pulled out her weapons and Sora grabbed the sword behind him and got into a stance similar to how he used his Keyblades. "W-Wait, are you seriously going to _resist_?!" The soldiers all looked shocked that supposed 'Criminals' were going to resist _arrest_ , which was rather stupid to both teenagers, as the last thing you should expect criminals to do is go quietly. "F-Fine then! Men, we have them outnumbered, get them!"

As Nia went to one and started to battle him, Sora had to make a conscious effort to not slash into anyone and bisect them in twain(It was pretty hard to do when you are so used to just slicing and dicing with all your strength.). So instead of using his sword, Sora just went up to one and jumped in the air while sending a spinning kick into the helmet of one of the fools, sending him flying back with his head gear busted, most likely unconscious. And as another tried to sneak up behind him, he turned and used his free left hand to punch the grunt in the stomach, leaving him breathless as Sora proceeded to grab the back of his outfit and throw him into a nearby rock head first, bopping him into the land of dreams.

Twisting his sword around so that he was holding the blade part of it like a baseball bat, he swung the handle towards a third approaching man(What was it with the uniforms that made them all look like Darth Vader's bastard offspring?), and slammed it into his chest, sending him back into the other soldier following near him and making them sprawl onto the floor. Running over to Nia afterwards, he grabbed an arm of the man who was about to slam a butt of a rifle into the struggling girl, and threw him back towards where the other were also being piled up. "Nia, lets go!"

Nodding her head at him, the two and their blades starting running away from the beaten members of the Empire, and it looked like they were home free, when they were suddenly halted( _Again_.) by a wall of blue fire appearing in their path. "Such a commotion." Turning around, they all saw a woman who was obviously a Blade(If the way her hair ended in fire and her legs were encompassed in the same flames as well were anything to go by.) make their way toward them, passing stuttering Imperial soldiers on the way as she drew out a pair of strange looking swords(Then again, who was he to judge strange weapons?).

"A Blade? Are one of the soldiers here her Driver?" "No. My Driver is elsewhere at the moment. I am here alone." Sora tilted his head, once more confused(Seriously, he hadn't been this confuses in his life! Figuring out how the Keyblade worked was like completing a four piece puzzle compared to this!), as he thought a Blade could only be near their Driver, or, at the very least, only fight when near them.

Just more questions to ask Pyra and/or Nia later.

 _Joy_.

" _Alone_? That seems rather dangerous- for you, I mean." "HAHAHA!" Startled, Sora looked behind the meantering woman to see the Captain of the squad laughing. "Lady Brighid is the 'Jewel of Mor Ardain'! The strongest Blade in the Empire! Even _alone_ , she is more than a match for you!" Not liking being underestimated, Sora let out a quip of his own. "You mean just like me alone was more than a match for you peons?" Smirking at their growls, Sora let out a chuckle of triumph. "Lady Brighid, these miscreants are terrorists working for Torna!"

"Oi! I just said she was an _ex_ -member, and now you've bundled me up in this mess, too?!" "That emerald Core Crystal… Could it really be true?" Ignoring both their bantering, she seemed to lock on directly to Pyra. "Well, well. Captain Padraig, you are not to kill them. Take these ones alive."

Sora clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Funny, you sound like you believe you can back up your statement." The woman whipped out her weapon, making it extend like a whip and covered it in the same blue fire as before, before retracting it again. "And it is funny that you think resistance isn't futile." Sighing in exhaustion, he turned to look at the sweating cat girl beside him. "Stay behind me, I'll deal with them, and we can be on our way." Not giving her time to respond, he gripped Pyra's sword tighter before seemingly vanishing and reappearing directly in front of the blue clad Blade in less than a second.

"What-" The action caused the usually closed eyed Blade's lids to slip open to show her shock, and she had just enough time to lift both her blades to block the new Drivers own when he swung it down upon her. Unluckily for her, though, the force of the swing was still strong enough to send her skidding back some ways away. "M-My Lady!" When the Captain and his remaining men looked like they were about to jump in, the Blade raised her hand to stop them. "Stay back; this one is far above something you and your men can handle. Allow me to deal with him."

The woman raised one of her swords and slashed it out, sending a decently sized blue blaze in a crescent arc towards Sora, who deftly dodged the attack and made to move to retaliate in response. "Sora!" Faltering in his next few steps, the teen glanced behind him and had his eyes widen when he saw the fire he had avoided going for a collision course with his traveling companion.

Nia, for her part, was in awe when she saw the boy she had only met days prior go toe-to-toe with one of the Empire's finest Blades, and even push her back. That awe increased when she witnessed him effortlessly evade an attack sent at him from a scant few feet away that she knew she would have had a tough time _blocking_ , let alone dodging.

That awe then turned to horror when she realized that the blue lighted flames were now heading straight for _her_. Dromarch barely had the time to move to try and take the attack, let alone put up a shield in time, and Pyra was too shocked to do more than yell, so it looked like she was in for a world of hurt.

"Aeroga!" And just as the blue elemental blast was a scant few feet away from sending her to paintown, a raging, circular sphere of wind roared to life around her, and as the fire touched the outer layers of it, the attack dissipated into tiny blue embers that floated to either side of her harmlessly. "Oh, right." The yellow wearing girl blushed while crossing her arms and looked away. "I forgot you could do that."

"Yes, Nia. You're welcome." Sora rolled his eyes. He got serious, however, when he turned his gaze back to his intrigued looking opponent. "Power over wind, and to such an extent? Then this must truly be the Aegis' power." "Sorry, lady." Sora refuted that statement vehemently while raising his blade to the sky. "What you're seeing is basically just me on steroids." With that said, he gathered magic into the very tip of the blade, causing a large ball of searing hot fire to form. "Fira-" The sword was then thrusted higher into the air, sending the large ball soaring into the air. "GUN!" Sora then swung the sword down, signalling the activation of his spell as the ball split into five separate, but still abnormally sized, fire spells that let gravity affect them once more as they all started plummeting to the ground, and all of them seemingly homing in on the once more wide eyed Blade.

"Wind _and_ fire? HYAH!" Seeing the spells about to pelter her, Brighid had to work over time as she swung both blades twice for maximum power to shoot out two crescent shaped blasts of blue flames to intercept two of the balls of fire, making the attacks on both sides cancel each other out. With that done, she coated her blades liberally in her own fire and slashed at one of the orbs that fell onto her. She stayed locked in that battle for a few seconds, causing perspiration to collect on her forehead from both the intense heat and the effort of trying to fend off the opposing flames, but she was finally able to push it away from her into a rock face off to the side of the battlefield.

Sadly, she hadn't much time for anything else as the last two fell onto her, so she hastily erected a barrier to hold them off, but as soon as the nearest one touched her defense, it exploded in a concentrated explosion that broke her guard and allowed the last one to collide a few feet away from her, but it was still more than enough to injure and send her reeling back on the ground in a heap.

"By the way, I don't take people trying to hurt my friends _lightly_." Glaring at the struggling form of the Blade trying to lift herself off the ground, he eventually let the expression go to sigh instead. "Come on, Nia. Let's-" "Look out!" Taking the advice at face value, Sora ducked quick enough to avoid a weird, sickly yellow material that was shot at him from the newly arrived soldiers.

"Really? You guys just don't learn, do you?" Ready for the next one that was sent his way, he slipped to the side and slashed at it with the Aegis Sword, and was thoroughly baffled when the glowing blade dimmed and disappeared as soon as the material hit it. "... Uh, anybody know where the blacksmith is?" His answer was being shot with about ten more of whatever it was they were shooting at him.

"Joy." As he was about to attempt to parkour his way out of this situation, he felt a tug at his hood and he watched as Nia and her Blade getting captured by the materials as the girl threw him behind her. "Nia? What are you doing?!" As he was about to move to collect his wayward tagalong, he froze when the recovered Blade thrust one of her swords at the nervous girls throat.

"I would desist, if I were you. One step forward, and this blade will be the end of this girls life." Sora, for his part, was aghast at the sight before him. "What the hell are you doing?!" "I underestimated you. That was a mistake that I was gravely punished for, but no more. You care for this girls life, do you not? Stand down." His expression soon turned into a glare. "You don't want to do this. You saw what I could do, and you also know that isn't EVERYTHING that I could do, as well." The woman nodded at his words. "That is correct. If you were to make an enemy of us now, we would surely be made to regret it in the near future. However, you want to protect this girl. Why, I know not. But you do, and so long as I hold all the cards in this, I hold the edge."

Sora grit his teeth in rage. "You think this- her _life_ \- is a GAME?!" "Nothing is a game to me, but the wellbeing of Mor Ardain and his Majesty Niall come before all else, and currently, you are the biggest threat to face both. So I will offer you a compromise. It would be foolish to believe that we would be able to hold you, let alone capture, at this time, so you are free to go, but the girl will be coming with us for interrogation, and if you want her back, come to the embassy in three days time." "You're _insane_ if you think I'll let you have her!" "It seems to me that you don't have much of a choice." She inched her weapon closer to the teens throat, making her gulp. "Grrrrr…" "Sora." Pyra walked up to her Driver and placed her hand on his shoulder to try and knock him out of his anger.

"... Fine." He spat out, directing the full brunt of his rage towards the purple haired Blade holding his friend hostage. "But I'll make sure you _regret_ this." Grabbing his redhead partner around the waist with his left arm, he activated his Quick Run ability and vanished from everyone's sight, but not before sending a one last baleful glare the 'Strongest Blade's way.

* * *

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Gritting his teeth, the Keyblade bearer kept pounding away at a wooden wall between some boxes further ahead from where he had to run away. "Sora…" His Blade looked conflicted about whether she should do something to help or just let him get this out of his system. "Damn that woman, damn this stupid 'Empire', and damn me for being so damn overconfident!" He ignored everything but the wall as he continued to bash it with his fist. "If I hadn't of been so cocky, so _stupid_ , Nia would have been here too, and not in the hands of someone that will gladly just kill her when it most conveniences herself! DAMN IT!" An especially hard punch landed this time.

"Sora, maybe we should just take some time to calm down, and figure out a way to take Nia back-" "We CAN'T Pyra! If I try anything, they won't hesitate to kill her! They know she was a part of a terrorist organization, and they won't care whether she lives or dies! One wrong move from me, and she's DONE!" Roaring one last time, he decked the wood one last time, but was surprised when the punch continued on past it as a makeshift door slid open when the boy hit it. "Oomph!" Not expecting the inanimate to ever fight back against him, Sora was unprepared for this and landed face first into the floor as his punch overextended and he was sent sprawling to the floor.

"Are you alright?" While Pyra ran and knelt next to him to see if he was alright, the teen lifted his head off the ground and looked further ahead in the narrow passageway that light didn't seem to touch. "What the heck is this?" Pushing himself up, Sora looked around to examine the hidden area more thoroughly. It somewhat hard to see as there was no source of light to illuminate the space, but Sora was experienced enough in traversing dark places to be able to make out objects and walls, which seemed to be filled with cobwebs and lanterns that looked as if they hadn't been refilled in years.

"A hideaway for some old criminals to stay out of the authorities sights, maybe?" Pyra hazarded a guess. "Hmmmm. Well, only one real way to find out." Turning around, Sora made sure to close the door behind them before they made their way through the unlit hall. "If it is an abandoned hideaway, this might be the perfect place for us lay low while we figure out how to get Nia back from that closed-eyed fiend of a Blade." Continuing on there way, they were soon met with a small, sparce space that had seen better days.

"Dang… It certainly looks like someone used to live here." The brunette commented as he walked forward and slid a finger along a counter near the kitchen corner, collecting all the dust on it when he did. "I mean, that was probably years ago, but still." His red haired companion also went around the room and observed what she saw, agreeing with her Driver that it was obviously not seen any use in a fairly large amount of time. "Indeed. But it looks a bit small for more than one person, and even then it would be a little cramped. I think maybe this was the home of a Nopon, instead."

Sora, still rather ignorant of this worlds terminology, was about to ask what the heck a 'Nopon' was and if he could eat it, when he was distracted by a decrepit, folded piece of paper on the hollowed square table in the middle of the room. Walking to it, he sat down and lifted the paper up, examining it. It was definitely left here as long ago as this place was abandoned, as instead of being a pristine white that most paper was, it was a dull yellow with rips and crinkles in it, showing times affects on it. Wanting to know the contents of it, however, Sora stopped his studying and unfolded it to see what was on the paper.

 _Dear piece of paper that is Tora's first and last entry of his diary,_

 _Tora did it! Tora completed Dadapon and Grampypon's dreams, and finished first ever Artificial Blade!_

… _Sort of!_

 _Artificial Blade that Tora nicknamed Poppi, is nearly finished, with the last touches needed being energy source that Tora has not been able to get hands on with the weather drought hitting here so recently, and Ether Furnace- or, should say, WORKING Ether Furnace. For reason Tora not knowing, Ether Furnace Dadapon Tatazo and Grampypon Soosoo not been working lately!_

 _In all pre-recorded tests before this, it work just fine, but it as if Ether Furnace just go copoot and stop working anymore!_

 _If that not bad enough, Tora overhear guards talking about whereabouts of Dadapon, and a factory in Mor Ardain that Tora not supposed to know about, so now Tora is wanted criminal on top of all this! No way Tora will be able to stay in Gormott anymore, and Tora want to look into this so called 'Factory', but the world is dangerous, and without Artificial Blade to offer protection, Tora become a tasty sausage to some monster in wilds!_

 _So, with heavy heart, Tora scrap Artificial Blade Poppi, to work on new Ether Furnace, for new Artificial Blade, Poppi Mk II. New Artificial Blade is almost complete, so Tora will be leaving this place within next 24 hours, and to avoid easier detection and capture, Tora will also be leaving behind Artificial Blade Poppi, and last memoriam Tora have of Dadapon and Grampypon in the original Ether Furnace as well._

 _Lucky for Tora, this hideaway is especially hidey, so not have to worry about sneaky troopers or snoopy thiefs stumbling upon Artificial Blade Poppi, and even if that happened, only super genius of Tora's family would have the know-how to make any use of it, anyway._

 _And, if Poppi somehow reading this despite all precautions…_

… _Sorry._

"Sora!" The teen quickly looked up from his reading at hearing the red clad Blade's gasp and shot up from his sitting position to rush to her side and see what was wrong. "Pyra, what's-" He stopped himself when he looked to where she was gazing and saw what must have been this 'Poppi' that he read about.

She looked about a foot shorter than even Sora(Who, though he despised admitting it, wasn't really the tallest person around.), with a white beret that had some kind of symbol embroidered onto the side of it, as well as having a red, metallic rim topped off with a cute little red ribbon covering metallic blue hair held in pigtails.. The only other mentionable clothing on her(As beside her face, the rest was just grey and silver metal, along with joints and other things Sora had no clue what they were.) was the red cape that reached her knees that ended in rips and tears, along with a pair of short pants that looked similar to something that Shakespeare would wear.

To top her off, there was also a still pristine white flower(Most likely why she was called 'Poppi'.) attached to the front of the cape, making Sora wonder if the flower was also metallic if it was still that alive looking after the years the creator left it there.

"Wow… Hey Pyra, do you know what the heck an 'Artificial Blade' is?" Seeing the quizzical expression on her face at the question, Sora had to take that as a no. "Apparently, this is the first ever Artificial Blade, which I think would mean the first man made Blade. This letter didn't really explain it that well." Handing her the paper, he went over to examine the robot like girl closer.

"Well, it definitely looks something impressive, I'll give this 'Tora' that much. Still, to let something this human looking stand here for the rest of eternity just seems… _Wrong_. There's gotta be something I can do." Scratching his head as he scanned the body, he was stumped when he asked himself exactly _what_ he could do.

He wasn't exactly the most tech savvy of people, he would say.

So, he decided to do what he did to ALL new mechanical inventions that he ever comes across.

Poke it until it does something.

As soon as his finger touched an orange gem sticking out from under the red cape, however, it started to glow a bit and Sora could see _another_ small cord, weaker, but similar to Pyra's connecting him to the Artificial Blade before him, and he could see that it was sucking magic out of him before the gem started glowing brighter and brighter.

"Not _again_!"

Instead of the intense pain(He wasn't sure if it would come from this new bond or Pyra's over-possessive one, though.), however, the cord simply attached itself to his Drive Gauge(Which had stopped growing, thankfully, when it was back to the twelve it was after he met Pyra for the first time.), and before he knew it, nausea hit him as he was sent stumbling back by some invisible force, finally catching Pyra's attention.

"Um, is everything okay, Sora?" He was about to respond to her, when he was halted as the nausea finally stopped and he got his footing. "Yeah, actually. Just some weird-" And in a flash of light, Sora was suddenly standing back in his base form, the handle of the Aegis Sword falling to the ground as the magic keeping it afloat went away with his form. "... Was that _really_ all it took to get out of that?"

Now Sora was more annoyed than he was concerned that he was forcefully removed from the form by this new connection.

He had no time to celebrate, however, as he felt his Drive Gauge rise back up from it's previous use not long afterwards, and it still went _further_ after it reached what he thought was his new maximum of 12 and went on to fill up a whole other gauge, before it seemingly maxed out and Sora felt another transformation coming on. "Oh come on, I just got out of the OTHER one!" It didn't really care, as Sora went through a new Drive form transformation the second time in the same week.

As the force of power dimed down, Sora looked down to see his new garbs.

This Drive form definitely had more aesthetic changes then the other one, as Sora could barely recognize his outfit anymore. His once massive shoes(Maybe that was where all his height went?) were now replaced by silver boots that reached to just above his ankles, with grey metal plates placed on the ends to give him more protection and offensive capabilities, with the shins being completely covered in grey greaves. His leggings and shorts had fused to make charcoal colored pants similar to the ones on the robot Blade he saw before, reaching his knees while having red stripes painted onto them.

His upper outfit had an equally big change, as his jacket had been removed to make way for a red cape of his own with a white rose being placed right above his heart, leaving a form fitting dark grey shirt to cover his torso with his necklace now having changed from a crown to a flat flower of the same nature the one Poppi had on her. And while half of his biceps were now revealed, almost all of his forearms were covered in vambraces of a silver color while his gloves had been removed to make way for bronze knuckles that now covered his fingers.

Reaching up hesitantly, he grasped the hat on top of it and pulled it off, letting him see that it was also like the one the Artificial Blade was wearing, however, this one had its colors inverted, with the cap being a deep red with the rims having become white, along with the ribbon turning into a white bow.

"Still not as horrifying as turning into a merman for the first time, I suppose." He muttered under his breath. "S-Sora?!" Glancing at the panicked Blade and seeing that she was pointing a shaking finger towards the smaller figure of Poppi, Sora looked over as well, and had his eyes pop out of his head as the Artificial Blade opened up her amber eyes and locked onto him. "Greetings, Master. My name is Poppi. Please take care of me from now on."

 **Sora's New Drive** **Form:**

Drive: Tripartite

Action:

Steady Top(Making the Drill Shield spin, it is then thrown to the ground and hit with the Keyblade, making it travel across the field like a pinball, slamming into numerous enemies in it's collision course and sending them flying.)

Key Cutter(Spins the Keyblade in the users hand 360 degrees, cutting into various enemies near it as it does. Increases Aggro drawn from enemies.)

Rigid Counter(Utilizing Guard, the user blocks attacks while storing the kinetic energy transferred into them to the Keyblade, where it eventually releases in a powerful bash. Regenerates health by 10% over 10 seconds.)

Critical Boost(Deals 120% more damage when in Critical condition, uses the Keyblade to snap at a foes legs, sending them Toppling as well if the status 'Break' is applied to them as well.)

Spinning Raid(Covering the Keyblade in a dense layer of stone, Sora throws it at all enemies out of range of Poppi's Spinning Slash, finishing with the Keyblade entrapping foes in stone and Poppi drilling into them with the Drill Shield.)

Sky's Storm(Sora focuses his magic into Poppi's Ether furnace, letting her emit a focused stream of Ether into the air that sucks in foes directly in front of her or pushes them away if outside of it's walls, which Sora then throws his Keyblade into, causing it to sporadically move in the storm and slam into foes trapped in its might.)

Poppi Quake(Poppi charges into the ground with jet propulsion, rocking the floor and sending cracks that enemies fall through across it and forms columns of earth that slam into other foes.)

Land Biter(Charging the drill, Poppi attaches the Keyblade to her back as if it were a dorsal fin, and tunnels through the Earth, going around the battlefield and slashing enemies with the Keyablde while hollowing out the floor before having it collapse on everyone in the vicinity, caving them in.)

Guard

Counterattack

Slapshot

Blitz

Stun Impact

Sonic Blade

Finishing Leap

Round Break

Aerial Dive

Master Magician

Growth:

High Jump MAX

Quick Run MAX

Dodge Roll MAX

Aerial Dodge MAX

Glide MAX

Superstrength MAX(Allows the ripping and rending of Earth with near unparalleled strength, giving the use of the magical element of Earth and the ability to heft the heaviest of objects.)

Support:

Noponic Iron(Boosts Defense by 20%.)

Guard Shift(Increases Guard speed and range by 20%.)

Emergency Mode(Boosts all stats by 50% when in Critical Mode.)

Auto-Shield(Let's Sora telepathically hold on to the Drill Shield.)

HP Gain

Scan

Cheer

Aerial Recovery

Combo Master

Jackpot

Jackpot

Treasure Magnet

Treasure Magnet

Lucky Lucky

Damage Drive

Damage Drive

Item Boost

MP Rage

Quake Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 20%.)

Quakera Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 30%.)

Quakega Boost(Increase damage done by earth-based attacks by 50%.)

MP Haste

MP Hastera

Once More

Second Chance

Defender

Damage Control

Berserk

Protega

Blade Boost

Weapons:

Magic Consul(Ultima Weapon)

Who-the-hell-do-you-think-we-are?!(Allows Poppi to use the Drill Shield when Sora is in Tripartite form, and the further apart they are from each other, the more their Defense and Evasion increases: 4% for every 5 feet, maximum of 20 feet; Drill Shield.)


End file.
